After much deliberation on this thread I installed Linux Mint last night --
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I used the easy install and I gave Linux a 100 GB partition of space figuring that would be more than enough.
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It is still convinced that its file system/computer has "0 Bytes Available"
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I tooled around on GParted for a while but I couldn't figure out how to turn unallocated space into useable space. From googling my issue it looks like I need to order the partitions in a certain way?
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I am in way over my head but my brief stint with Linux before realizing I'd done a terrible install had me falling in love! Please help!

Basically you need a partition table on the drive and then you're able to create partitions, which each have a file system. To be able to use the file system it needs to be mounted, then it is accessible at its mountpoint directory. For a simple install the root partition which is mounted at / is enough and 100GB should be big enough.

Some file systems can't be increased in size and many can't be decreased.